What is the industry demand for 2D people?

[tangram3ds]

Hello,

 

I was looking at Viz People packets. I know they're made in Poland or something, but there seems to be a considerable gap in industry demand versus what they create. Are there any other notable companies who create quality 2D people? Additionally, what do you find yourself needing when creating renderings? Diversity is a big deal, but older people, too. And having people who are actually talking would be a major benefit. Any others?

[rfirkins]

Yes, diversity (race + age) is much needed. Beyond that, have a sense of style (or maybe less style?) when dressing the models. With Viz People I can often find something that sort of works due to the sheer volume, but so many of them are unusable due to odd clothing or actions. Many of the female "office" workers have 6" heels and skirts that barely cover, well... maybe standards are different in different countries.

 

If I were doing it I would set up a rig of ~12 cameras for 360° views around each person/pose/outfit (like RPC) - often you'll find a person you'd like to use but they just aren't at quite the right angle.

[tangram3ds]

Yes, diversity (race + age) is much needed. Beyond that, have a sense of style (or maybe less style?) when dressing the models. With Viz People I can often find something that sort of works due to the sheer volume, but so many of them are unusable due to odd clothing or actions. Many of the female "office" workers have 6" heels and skirts that barely cover, well... maybe standards are different in different countries.

 

If I were doing it I would set up a rig of ~12 cameras for 360° views around each person/pose/outfit (like RPC) - often you'll find a person you'd like to use but they just aren't at quite the right angle.

 

 

The short skirts/dresses and high heels are definitely reoccurring issues. Clients are always asking for modifications to the people to be more conservative. Thank you for your feedback. That sounds like a good setup.

[Chris MacDonald]

I really cannot stand all the stock people I find. They are far too posed.

 

If I go into the street and take a picture of people passing by, they are generally unaware and uninterested about what I'm doing. They do not draw attention to themselves. This is what I want, and why I spend hours chopping people out of photos when possible, rather than using stock.

[Scott Schroeder]

The other big gripe I have is spending $100+ for a collection that only used 5 humans for the various poses and clothing changes. Some of the Viz People collections are notorious for this. Their quality was outstanding, but you couldn't use more then 1-2 of them in your scene since they used the same people for everything.Our scenes require a good amount of people in them so we need diversity in every way.

 

I also hate when collections put in people who are looking directly at the camera. It gives your render that, "why are you taking my picture you creep", look.

[Andres Saarnak]

This is what I want, and why I spend hours chopping people out of photos when possible, rather than using stock.

 

It´s a tedious work..I hate it after cutting out just two.. Any good tips or tutorials about how to cut people out? Or what´s your preferred method?

[Chris MacDonald]

Nope, just use a path in photoshop.

[Nic H]

2d people are over

[christosviskadourakis]

I feel like 2d are done because the quality of renders are going up but the quality of a 2d cut out person will remain the same. So besically, 2d people "photobombing" new renders. Or this is just the way I think. On the contrary, animals in 2d are still legit (in my opinion)

[Andres Saarnak]

I feel like 2d are done because the quality of renders are going up but the quality of a 2d cut out person will remain the same. So besically, 2d people "photobombing" new renders. Or this is just the way I think. On the contrary, animals in 2d are still legit (in my opinion)

 

Well, quality of a 2d cutout people is pretty much as photoreal as you can get Though, placing them on renders looks most of the time pretty bad..But some can definitely do it very well.

[Nic H]

I feel like 2d are done because the quality of renders are going up but the quality of a 2d cut out person will remain the same. So besically, 2d people "photobombing" new renders. Or this is just the way I think. On the contrary, animals in 2d are still legit (in my opinion)

 

\the available 3d animals are terrible. iv seen some misguded souls use the evermotion dog and cat in marketing images

truly awful

[christosviskadourakis]

\the available 3d animals are terrible. iv seen some misguded souls use the evermotion dog and cat in marketing images

truly awful

 

Yeah I agree. I am talking about 2d, real photoshooted animals.

[christosviskadourakis]

Well, quality of a 2d cutout people is pretty much as photoreal as you can get Though, placing them on renders looks most of the time pretty bad..But some can definitely do it very well.

Of course, real people on photos look realy real . But as you said, when you put them on an scene, they look bad. Fore me, it is always bothering me that there is no depth in these people. I know it is just layer or a plane in a 3d environment. Maybe 2d people are suitable for exterior scenes. Using them indoors, it is very tricky

[martinivask]

Viz-people are produced in Poland. Poland is overall a very productive country in the field of visualization accessories. (Evermotion is also based in Poland)

It seems to me that all Eastern Europe is very active in the whole archviz area.

But talking about cut out people, viz-people aren't the only company.

There are many other notable companies. The quality, variety and pricing of course differs a lot, you just have to look around a bit.

 

Here's a list of some sites:

www.doschdesign.com

www.epictor.com

www.vishopper.com

www.gobotree.com

www.easy3dsource.com

www.MrCutout.com

 

Besides these there's a lot of places where you can find free images, which is great, although the quality often sucks.

 

I don't think that 3d people will kill 2d people. At least not in the near future. The quality of 3d people have been raising significantly in past years.

And now they can offer some competition to 2d people. But they also have the same problem as many 2d people - they appear unnatural or sometimes just unnaturally beautiful.

The reason is probably the mechanism how they are produced. You can't catch people from the street into 3d scanner and make a snap.

I mean with proffessional models in a studio it's difficult to get a natural looking result. Just one example www.vishopper.com/cut_out_people/people5229 - 3d can't make this yet.

 

Not to mention that quality 3d people cost around 50 USD, but for this price you can buy around 100 2d people.

 

And one final note - one thing I don't personally like about people on visualisations, is that when I see the same person a 100th time.

But as I work in the area, it happens often to me

[vizutilcompany]

I know this thread is a little dated, but since this thread was created a new company has started up.

 

Take a few minutes to look at Vizutil and see what you think about their packages. It was created as a concerted effort to fill in some of the gaps addressed in this forum and others like it. There are a few freebies offered, as well.

 

Let me know what you think.

[M V]

The most successful people that I use quite a bit in my renders are when you have more than one person engaging with each other. It tells a story when 3 ladies are walking and laughing together or 2 students are having a conversation and looking at each other. All of these single people walking around like robots and if you try to pose them together they look odd.

 

Honestly, I have really liked using VisShopper when I need a specific character.

https://www.vishopper.com

 

One area where I see a hole is college students. There are so many higher ed projects that are a huge sector of architecture right now and there are no University people sets. You could go on campus with free snacks and beer opener keychains and handful of consent forms and shoot them all day long.

[Scott Schroeder]

I know this thread is a little dated, but since this thread was created a new company has started up.

 

Take a few minutes to look at Vizutil and see what you think about their packages. It was created as a concerted effort to fill in some of the gaps addressed in this forum and others like it. There are a few freebies offered, as well.

 

Let me know what you think.

 

These collections are like everything else, great high quality content but lacks actor/actress diversity unless you want twins in your scene. Out of 100's of images, you can only use 10 and since you used the same people for each collection, you can't really mix collections or else you get back to your twins/triplets/octomom issues.

 

If I buy 100 images of people, I would at least expect to use 50 of them without seeing repetition.

[vizutilcompany]

Thank you for your response, ValeroStudio. I understand that groups of people are important. It is hard to group individual people together, which is why we tried to include some of that. More is certainly necessary.

 

Similarly, VelvetElvis, I understand your point. This was the first shooting and more are to come and the hope is to increase the diversity each time. As it stands now, though, can you be more specific as to what it is lacking in diversity? Do you tend to get requests for more Asian people, more African American? Or is it something different altogether, like more children?

[Scott Schroeder]

Thank you for your response, ValeroStudio. I understand that groups of people are important. It is hard to group individual people together, which is why we tried to include some of that. More is certainly necessary.

 

Similarly, VelvetElvis, I understand your point. This was the first shooting and more are to come and the hope is to increase the diversity each time. As it stands now, though, can you be more specific as to what it is lacking in diversity? Do you tend to get requests for more Asian people, more African American? Or is it something different altogether, like more children?

 

I think you have good racial diversity, but you lack plain people(actor/actress) diversity. You have these great people but you use so little of them that you can only populate your scene with just a handful out of the collection of many. Then when you use the same actor/actress in the group cutouts, you can't use that group cutout if you've already placed the same actor/actress elsewhere. This gets even more compounded by the fact that they are in the same clothes as their individual poses as their group poses. Your clothes that you show is pretty perfect. It's even enough that these people can fit in any scene in any region of the world. Your poses are also excellent. They aren't doing anything goofy like waving and smiling at the camera.

 

If you must use the same person, you have to try to at least alter their clothes and their hair (or get them to wear a hat).

 

As it stands, I can't buy this collection because my need is to use a lot of people for our scenes and I can't have the same actor/actress 10 times in each scene.

[vizutilcompany]

I think you have good racial diversity, but you lack plain people(actor/actress) diversity. You have these great people but you use so little of them that you can only populate your scene with just a handful out of the collection of many. Then when you use the same actor/actress in the group cutouts, you can't use that group cutout if you've already placed the same actor/actress elsewhere. This gets even more compounded by the fact that they are in the same clothes as their individual poses as their group poses. Your clothes that you show is pretty perfect. It's even enough that these people can fit in any scene in any region of the world. Your poses are also excellent. They aren't doing anything goofy like waving and smiling at the camera.

 

If you must use the same person, you have to try to at least alter their clothes and their hair (or get them to wear a hat).

 

As it stands, I can't buy this collection because my need is to use a lot of people for our scenes and I can't have the same actor/actress 10 times in each scene.

 

Thank you for explaining that further. I am beginning to understand what you mean. I would imagine you often work with images that have a lot of people. With the limited number of different actors used in the packages, you are limited with your options. Despite the several pose options and the options to use groups of actors/actresses, you can only use each actor/actress one time in the scene. So, in tandem with the positives you laid out, having more actors in general would help to increase the diversity you are seeking.

[M V]

Just another job/talent that viz artists need to be a master at, Casting Director.

[Casey Hawley]

My 2 cents..

 

I have more need for everyday food service types for the assembly-line style of restaurants that are common these days. For example, the types you see at a Chipotle, or Fired Pie. Would like them to be in-action, preparing something in front of them on a counter, or slightly reaching for that ingredient, looking at the customer, carrying things, etc. Some with caps, but then also without. Put them in contrasting colors, like black apron & cap with white shirt so it is easy to modify the colors to match client branding needs. Pre-masked for this purpose would be helpful, too! Also would need some 'chef' options for this type. Chefs typically facing away from camera, utilizing the back cook-line; pouring, reaching, stirring, etc. Racial diversity is important for these, and not too good looking.. I have yet to walk into a Chipotle run by super models!

[vizutilcompany]

My 2 cents..

 

I have more need for everyday food service types for the assembly-line style of restaurants that are common these days. For example, the types you see at a Chipotle, or Fired Pie. Would like them to be in-action, preparing something in front of them on a counter, or slightly reaching for that ingredient, looking at the customer, carrying things, etc. Some with caps, but then also without. Put them in contrasting colors, like black apron & cap with white shirt so it is easy to modify the colors to match client branding needs. Pre-masked for this purpose would be helpful, too! Also would need some 'chef' options for this type. Chefs typically facing away from camera, utilizing the back cook-line; pouring, reaching, stirring, etc. Racial diversity is important for these, and not too good looking.. I have yet to walk into a Chipotle run by super models!

 

That's a very specific niche, but I see what you mean. We will certainly look at creating actors for this. Thank you.

[Francisco Penaloza]

Although I agree with Schott, I think your collection is fine, I guess it is because you just started, we don't see much variety, but if you can produce more collections quick enough I think this would be a valid option for us.

Maybe later have a mix & match collection too, so instead of buying 5 variations of the same person, we only get one pose of her/him and the get other person, for the same total of people in one collection. So if you buy a collection with 30 people instead of being one model 5 times, have 30 different people. When more options you give us to buy, the better for you and us

Other than that I think you are in the right route.

 

Good work man.

[vizutilcompany]

Although I agree with Schott, I think your collection is fine, I guess it is because you just started, we don't see much variety, but if you can produce more collections quick enough I think this would be a valid option for us.

Maybe later have a mix & match collection too, so instead of buying 5 variations of the same person, we only get one pose of her/him and the get other person, for the same total of people in one collection. So if you buy a collection with 30 people instead of being one model 5 times, have 30 different people. When more options you give us to buy, the better for you and us

Other than that I think you are in the right route.

 

Good work man.

 

We intend to be adding more packages soon and the feedback from this thread is helping to decide our direction. I like the option of mixing and matching collections. It will be easier to get more variety that way. Considering we will be hiring different people every shoot, this is certainly manageable.

 

Thanks for the feedback.